Just Keep Smiling
by Pro PandaBear
Summary: This is the story of Jeremy and his experiences on the island. Original character.
1. Oceanic Flight 815

TITLE: Just Keep Smiling  
CHARACTERS: Jeremy  
RATED: PG-13  
SUMMARY: This is the story of Jeremy and his experiences on the island.  
STATUS: Ongoing  
DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of LOST.  
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This will remain as canon as possible. Some details will be changed, but the major plot points will be unchanged, i/e. If they died in the show, they die in this story. P.S. I suck with making up names. A big thanks to **Hobbit4Lyfe** for beta reading my first fan fic! Also the name of this story was inspired by another fic, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was about, so if the writer of that fic somehow reads this, I'm not trying to steal your title, it was just really good and fitting lol

* * *

_Chapter 1:  
Oceanic Flight 815  
Day 1_

* * *

I open my eyes.

The cool air from the miniscule air conditioner on the ceiling of the plane is still blowing, just as I left it.

My watch is telling me that I have been asleep for nearly five hours. So I'd say it's been roughly six hours since the plane took off.

I take a moment to stretch, trying to rid myself of the aches of flying and sleeping in coach.

Being that I have been on this plane for the past six hours, a bathroom break would probably be a good idea.

I barely get out of my seat and into the isle when a man in a black hoodie and jeans charges past me - or more like into me - and knocks me back into my seat. "What the!" I lower my voice considerably for the remainder of the sentence. "Hell is wrong with these people?"

Unwilling to admit defeat, I try again to get out of my seat, but I am once again pushed back into my row by some flight attendants. Though they weren't as forceful as the man in the hoodie, they did a pretty good job of keeping me out of the bathroom.

"I guess I'll just wait then!" I nearly yell to the flight attendants. And not a damn was given. They continue shouting up ahead, presumably to the man in the hoodie. "Sir, excuse me sir, please wait!"

The plane suddenly starts shaking. I have flown enough to know it's just turbulence, but it lasts a little longer than I am used to.

The fasten seatbelt sign comes on, and I take that as my sign to sit back down.

By the time my seatbelt is properly fastened, the turbulence has taken a momentary break, and a female flight attendant begins speaking over the planes intercom system, "Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has switched on the fasten seatbelt sign, please return to your seats, and fasten your seatbelts."

The turbulence starts again, but is more like regular turbulence. Any nervousness I felt before is now gone, but some of the other passengers around me still seem pretty frightened.

The turbulence suddenly gets much heavier, causing the plane to make creaking noises, as if the wings were being pulled ever so slightly.

Almost as if we had been swatted like a fly, the plane suddenly jerks downward. It felt like the plane just dropped a hundred feet. This causes luggage to fall from the overhead, and people to fly out of their seats and hit the ceiling violently. _This is why I fastened my seatbelt. _I thought about saying it, but now didn't seem to be the appropriate time.

By the sounds the plane is making, it's obvious we gained speed fast, still violently shaking all the while.

The breathing masks fall from above, and I immediately put mine on.

I know for sure the plane has switched to a downward angle when a drink cart goes rolling down the aisle towards the front of the plane.

The plane begins making a sound like it's being strained, or pulled. Now I'm kind of nervous.

Then another sound, which is a lot like twisting metal. I'm not going to lie, I'm starting to panic.

People were probably screaming, crying, and saying goodbye to their loved ones, but I couldn't hear any of it. The sound of metal being crunched, ripped, and torn was all I could hear.

I had my suspicions, but when seats, carts, and even people started flying towards the back of the plane, I knew what had happened. I wanted to be sure though, so I turned around and saw that the entire tail section of the plane was missing. Okay. Now I'm freaking out.

I tightened my death grip on the arm rests, and refocused my attention on the front of the plane just so I didn't have to see people falling out of the back.

Only a couple of seconds later did the front of the plane fall off. Having just witnessed the back fall off, I could have lived with the front falling off too, if it hadn't broken off directly in front of me. It took the row ahead of me with it, making sure that I had a good view of the clouds and my impending doom.

Between the high speed and extreme trauma I have been exposed to over the last couple minutes, I start to black out, something I'm almost thankful for. At least now I won't be conscious when I die.

And with that final thought, my vision is completely overtaken by darkness.

* * *

Note: Yeah, this chapter is kind of short, but that's mostly because I don't really have a whole lot to go over. But I promise the next chapters will be longer. I don't consider myself the best writer in the world, so any reviews, good or bad, would be amazing. Just try to keep it constructive.


	2. Worlds Worst Beach Party

TITLE: Just Keep Smiling  
CHARACTERS: Jeremy  
RATED: PG-13  
SUMMARY: This is the story of Jeremy and his experiences on the island.  
STATUS: Ongoing  
DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of LOST.  
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This will remain as canon as possible. Some details will be changed, but the major plot points will be unchanged, i/e. If they died in the show, they die in this story. Another big thanks to **Hobbit4Lyfe** for beta reading!

* * *

_Chapter 2:  
World's Worst Beach Party  
Day 1_

* * *

_Ow ow ow ow ow. _My head is pounding, and I think I've been sweating.

A quick feel around my head for a sore spot leads me to a pool of sweat in my hair and a very tender spot just under my hair line on the right side of my face.

My vision is blurry, but the red on my hand is easily visible, and reveals that I have not been sweating, but instead I have been bleeding. A lot.

My vision begins to clear up and regain its focus, and shows me that I have been missing something very important in my few seconds of consciousness. I'm in my seat. In a tree. Upside down. Hanging by the waist from my seatbelt. _This is why you listen to the fasten seatbelt sign._

I'm only capable of being a mental smart ass for a split second until I start to panic, and quickly undo my seatbelt.

I instantly regret this decision, seeing as how I am about twenty feet above the ground.

I collide with the ground fast and hard, revealing another hidden injury.

I cry out in agony as I feel a sharp pain in the left side of my ribs.

I'm able to stand up, the pain in my ribs disappearing as fast as it came. _I probably cracked some ribs._

I take a moment to get my bearings, which reveals that I am in jungle. There is a clearing about fifty feet directly in front of me, and as of now, is the only place I have to go.

I step out onto a beach, which is very beautiful. The smooth, untouched sand and the crystal clear ocean are quite a sight.

I look to my left and see what could be the exact opposite of the beautiful beach. The fuselage is burning, airplane parts are scattered all over the beach, and people are screaming and running around.

I can see some people in far worse condition than I am trying to help others, so I might as well make myself useful.

I do a half jog, half sprint type of run over to the fuselage.

The first thing I notice is a blonde woman standing in the middle of some wreckage screaming. She isn't injured, so I keep looking for someone in more need of help.

There is a black man calling for someone. "Walt!" he keeps calling out. By the desperation I can hear in his voice, Walt is probably his son.

I didn't even notice a man come running up to me. He asked me something but I don't know what it was. He's waiting for an answer, so I tell him the only thing I can without knowing the question. "Dude...you have beautiful eyes."

He looks at me like I'm crazy, and with my still slightly dazed state he's probably not far off.

"What? Just, do you have a pen?" He asks me, trying to focus on his current task.

I don't know why in the world he would need a pen in our current situation, but I decide to let my question go as he probably just wants a quick answer so he can get back to whatever important task requires a pen. "No, sorry." With that he moved on to another person, still searching for a pen.

I continued toward the fuselage still looking for anyone in need of help.

A blonde - and very pregnant - woman caught my eye. She was sitting against the fuselage next to a large man with curly hair. I figured she might need some kind of help, being that she must have been at least eight months pregnant.

"Are you alright?" I ask, kneeling down so we could be face to face.

"I'm fine," she replies in an Australian accent. She notices that I look down towards her stomach "I think the baby is fine... I-I don't know. It hasn't moved since the crash."

The large man suddenly cuts in "Dude... if she starts having baby problems I'm gonna pass out. You should get Jack."

I heed his warning and set off to find Jack when a thought occurs to me. "Wait, who's Jack?"

The large man takes a moment to think. "He's the guy in the suit, short hair. He's been... like... helping people."

The pregnant woman helps out a little bit. "I think he's a doctor."

"Okay." And with that I'm off trying to find Jack.

I search for about a whole ten seconds, when I hear metal creaking, like I had on the plane. The plane wing is threatening to fall, and the pregnant woman is right under it.

I start off on a sprint towards the wing, when I see that a man in a suit and that large man are trying to move the pregnant woman away from it.

I begin running to them, because I am suddenly determined to keep that woman alive. I keep saying woman, but she looks like she isn't a day over 22. Age aside, I'm ready to carry her away from that plane if that's what I have to do. I still don't know why; I've known her for a total of twenty seconds.

I begin my sprint towards them when the plane wing falls. They were out from under it so it wouldn't crush them. There must have still been fuel in the wing, and a lot of it, because upon hitting the ground it explodes. The explosion knocks them down, and I'm still running full force to them. So when the force of the explosion hit me, it was like sprinting into a brick wall. Except this brick wall could send you flying backwards fifteen feet.

I picked my head up from the sand and saw that the three of them were unharmed and moving again. That was about all the energy I had after that explosion. I don't know if it was a rush of fatigue that had been building up for a while, or one too many hits to the head that had caused my drowsiness, but I set my head back into the sand and closed my eyes.

* * *

I wake up next to a fire. It's dark, but I can tell I'm not where I passed out at.

I sit up rather quickly, which makes the pain in my ribs resurface. I try to stifle the pain, but still let a small groan slip out.

I feel a hand on my shoulder. "Whoa, take it easy," a man says. I look over to see a man with short hair looking at me like a doctor would a patient.

"You must be Jack."

He chuckles. "Yeah, that's me."

"Well give it to me straight, Jack, I cracked my ribs didn't I?"

He chuckles once again. "No, you didn't, but you sure bruised the hell out of 'em. It should be fine in a week or two, but when we get rescued, you should go to a hospital to get it checked out just in case. As for that cut on your head, it was pretty deep. Don't worry, though. I stitched it up best I could."

I give him my thanks and begin to walk the beach.

I don't walk far until I see the pregnant woman in her own little corner by a fire, using parts of the plane as furniture. I decide to stop by and see how she's doing.

"Hey, how are you doing?" I ask.

She takes a moment to recognize me. "I'm fine; I still haven't felt the baby move yet."

"Oh, well the baby will move soon, probably just frightened by all the commotion." I didn't know if that was true or not, but she was probably tired of everyone saying _Oh I'm so sorry._

"Thanks, it's nice to hear that."

"Anytime. So was your husband on the plane?"

She starts to stare at the ground as the thinks over her answer. "I'm uh... I'm not married."

"Oh." I could have sworn I said that almost emotionless, but she must have picked up some disapproval in my voice.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm so... what's the word..."

"Modern?" I ask.

"Yeah that's a good word for it, modern. Wait, sorry, this is kind of a weird question, but how old are you?"

She's right, it is a weird question, but I decide to answer it anyways. "Fourteen, why?"

"What!" She exclaims with a rather shocked expression on her face. "I thought you were like, twenty five or something!"

I still think the situation is more than a little weird, but I decide against asking her why she was thinking about my age. "Why? Because I look twenty five or because I act twenty five?"

"Well you look like you are my age, if not a little younger. I guess you are just really mature for you age."

I'm still kind of chuckling about the random outburst from the woman I have known a total of three minutes. "I must be if you though I was twenty five! I'm Jeremy, by the way."

"Claire."

A sound suddenly rang out into the sky, causing me, Claire, and half the camp to jump to their feet. Something similar to a loud horn, or siren, or maybe even some kind of howl follows it up just as loud. There are trees moving and being ripped up in the distance. The two sounds continue to come from the jungle, each just as loud as the rest.

"Claire," I say, "what the hell is that?"

* * *

Note: Remember that I am always trying to improve, so tell me how I'm doing by leaving a review!


	3. The Cockpit

TITLE: Just Keep Smiling  
CHARACTERS: Jeremy  
RATED: PG-13  
SUMMARY: This is the story of Jeremy and his experiences on the island.  
STATUS: Ongoing  
DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of LOST.  
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey anybody who actually reads this, I've been on vacation for the last couple of weeks and haven't had a lot of time to write, sorry about that. Also, I know the whole young person on the plane thing has been used a lot. I also know that sometimes it can be a little unrealistic with them carrying guns and what not. This story is based more in reality than some others. Jeremy doesn't have some amazing background. He's special because he's normal. There also won't be a lot of flashbacks. Mostly because there isn't a lot of special things that happened to him before the island. But don't think that it's going to be boring because he's normal, because he's only normal off the island. He is very special when it comes to the island. Also this character is slightly based off of me in the way that most of his fighting and shooting abilities were things I could do at the age and younger. Sorry for the extremely long author's note. Another big thanks to **Hobbit4Lyfe** for beta reading!

* * *

_Chapter 3:  
The Cockpit  
Day 2_

* * *

"It, uh, it sounded like an animal," said an African American man. Michael, I think.

"Not exactly," said the man that asked me for the pen. Speaking of, I need to ask him about that.

"That sound it made, I keep thinking there was something really familiar about it," an African-American woman added.

"Really? Where are you from?"

"The Bronx."

"There's a lot of monkeys." Hey! That's the guy who knocked me into my seat! And he's British! I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind when I get the chance.

"Yeah, it's monkeys, it's monkeys," Sawyer said sarcastically.

"Technically, you know, we don't even know if we're on an island," the large man that helped Claire added.

Well I can see that this is going to be a productive conversation. I'm gonna save myself the time and do something productive.

* * *

"Whatever it was, it wasn't natural," said Michael. So much for productivity. I'm still talking with them. At least I learned their names.

"Does anyone have any sunblock?" asked Charlie, the British man who knocked me over.

"Yeah, I do," said Shannon, the pen guy's sister. Speaking of pen guy, his name is Boone. Never heard that one before.

The large man, Hurley, walked over and sat down, his motives instantly clear.

"So I was just looking inside the fuselage, it's pretty grim in there. You think we should do something about the uh," he looks at Michael and his little boy, Walt, "b-o-d-y-s?"

"What are you spelling man? Bodies?" asked Michael.

"B-o-d-i-e-s," Walt informed him.

"That sounds like a good idea," Sayid told him in his thick Middle-Eastern accent.

"No! They'll deal with it when they get here!" Shannon exclaimed.

Jack walked over and crouched between Boone and Sayid.

"I'm gonna go out and look for the cockpit, see if we can find a transceiver... to see if we can send a distress signal, help out the rescue team. You're gonna need to keep an eye on the wounded." He said, looking to Boone. "If the guy in the suit wakes up... try to keep him calm... but don't let him remove that piece of shrapnel, you understand?"

"Yeah, got it. What about the guy with the leg?...The tourniquet?"

"It stopped the bleeding. I took it off last night, he should be alright."

"Yeah, cool... good job."

I'm tired of sitting around here. I could go for a walk. Possibly be branded as a hero when rescue comes.

"I'll go with you Jack," I said.

"No," he quickly replied.

"Yeah? And why is that?" I already know what he's going to say, and I already know what I'm gonna tell him.

"You're just a kid." Called it.

"Jack, if you didn't notice, I'm actually an inch taller than you, my voice is just as deep as yours, and mere minutes after surviving a plane crash, I was helping other survivors, just like you. And I did it with a gash in my forehead and bruised ribs. The only thing 'kid' about me is my age. I'm just as qualified for this as you are."

People are staring at us. I don't like this kind of attention, but I refuse to break my stare with Jack, I will not back down.

"Fine," he says, obviously less than thrilled that got what I wanted.

"I'm coming too," Charlie says.

"We already have enough people," Jack says.

"If he gets to go then so do I," Charlie says pointing to me.

"Alright you can come too, but you both need to be ready in five minutes," Jack says, making his disapproval obvious.

* * *

I decided to tell Claire that I was going to go with Jack.

I find her sitting in an airplane seat, staring out at the ocean.

"Hey, Claire."

"Hey."

"I'm going with Jack to find the transceiver, help get us rescued."

"How heroic," she says with a smile.

"I will get you, and your baby, rescued Claire. If it's the last thing I do." I tell her, being as serious as possible.

"I trust you," she says. The look in her eyes tells me that she truly trusts me.

I smile and begin to walk away. I don't get five feet before her telling me she trusts me starts to eat me alive.

"I lied." I tell her.

"What?" she asks, genuinely confused.

"When you asked me how old I was, I lied. I'm only thirteen."

She still has a look of confusion.

"I'll be fourteen this December. I lied because enough people in my life only look at me as a kid. I just thought that while I was here, I would just try to get treated as an adult for once in my life. I'm sorry I lied." I tell her.

She smiles again. "I still trust you." She tells me.

This makes me smile too, and I begin to walk away again.

* * *

"Can I ask you something?" said Kate, who was coming with us too.

"Me? I'd be thrilled. I've been waiting," stated Charlie.

"Have we ever met anywhere?" She asks.

"No. That would be unlikely," he says with a smirk on his face.

"Yeah, it's strange. I feel like I've met you too." I tell him.

"I look familiar, right?"

"Yeah." She says.

"Can't quite place it?" he asks.

"I can place it. You rushed through the aisle and knocked me back into my seat." I say.

Kate smiles and Charlie just ignores the comment altogether.

"Yeah, I think I know," he tells her.

"You do?"

"You all everybody! Oh, you all everybody!" He sings in a high pitched tone.

Kate gives him a confused glance.

"You never heard that song?"

"I've heard it I just don't know what the hell-"

"That's us!" he exclaims. "Driveshaft. Look the ring. Second tour of Finland." He says, pointing to a ring on his right hand with the letters DS on it.

"You never heard of Driveshaft?" He asks her, completely blown away by the thought that someone hadn't heard of Driveshaft.

"The band?" She asks.

"Yeah the band!"

"You were in Driveshaft?" She asks quite skeptically. Now I'm intrigued. I kind of like Driveshaft, though I only ever listened to them on the radio.

"I am in Driveshaft; I play bass!"

"Are you serious?" Kate and I ask at the same time.

"Yeah! Charlie. Track 3, you know, I do backing vocals!"

"My friend Beth would freak she loves you guys!" Kate tells him.

"Give me Beth's number I'll call her up. I'd love to!... Does she live nearby-?"

"Have you ever heard of Driveshaft?" Kate asks Jack, who I just noticed had come over to us when we stopped.

"You all everybody!" Charlie begins to sing in the same high pitched voice. "Oh you all every... body." He tapers off when Jack gives him a look that shows he's clearly not amused.

"We gotta keep moving," Jack says.

"You were good," Kate tells him as we start moving again.

"We are good. We're still together. We're in the middle of a comeback."

* * *

We're walking through some tall grass when it suddenly begins raining heavily.

"Hey guys is this normal? The kinda day turning into night, you know, end of the world type weather? Guys?" says Charlie.

We don't walk a whole lot further until we find the cockpit. It's at about a 45 degree angle, propped up against a large cluster of trees.

"Well. Let's do this," says Jack.

We get just inside the front section of the plane when we all notice something. There are no survivors. They are all dead in their seats.

"Let's get this trans...-" Charlie has trouble remembering what it's called.

"Transceiver," Jack tells him.

"Transceiver thing, and let's get out of here." Charlie says as we begin to climb the seats.

Jack reaches the cockpit door, while Charlie, Kate, and I are right behind him. Since we can't all fit right next to each other, we try to find different things to hold on to. Jack's hitting the door handle with a fire extinguisher, presumably because it's locked. Kate's behind him to his left, and I'm to his right holding on to a seat. I don't know where Charlie is.

I can feel my grip on this seat starting to loosen, and Kate can see it too. She's in a far better spot than I am, so she offers her hand to me so I can jump to her spot. Just as I jump for her hand the door busts open and the body of one of the pilots falls out straight into me, which makes me miss Kate's hand and go tumbling down the aisle and out of the plane. I land on my back, and just to the right of me is the pilot's body. I quickly stand up and move back towards the plane.

"Are you alright?" I can hear Kate yell to me.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm coming back up," I tell her.

"Alright. Do you want me to wait for you?"

"No I'll be fine. Go on ahead."

I can see her nod her head and move into the cockpit.

I begin my climb back up to the cockpit, making sure to get a good grip.

By the time I make it up into the cockpit, Kate and Jack had already begun talking to the pilot.

"Six hours in..." the pilot says. "Our radio went out. No one could see us. We turned back to land in Fiji. By the time... we... we hit turbulence... we were a thousand miles off course. They're looking for us in the wrong place." We are all silent for a while until the pilot starts moving around. "We have a transceiver."

"Good, good, that's what we were hoping," Jack tells him. "You shouldn't try to move."

"No, no, I'm okay. The transceiver is right there." He points behind his seat, and Kate crawls to it.

"Where's Charlie?" Jack asks. Now that I think about it, I haven't seen Charlie since I fell out of the plane.

Kate and I go back out of the cockpit to look for him.

"Charlie?" Kate says.

The bathroom door behind us suddenly bursts open, and Charlie comes out of it.

"What were you doing in the bathroom?" Kate asks.

"What?" he asks, as if we're crazy.

The sound we heard from the jungle makes a sudden reappearance, sounding much closer this time.

Kate, Charlie, and I move back into the cockpit.

"It's right outside," I can hear Kate say, but just barely.

"What? What's right outside?" the pilot asks.

Jack gives him a signal to be quiet.

The pilot stands up and moves to one of the broken windows.

Then a sound much like two metal pipes hitting each other is released as the pilot is pulled from the cockpit, kicking and screaming, leaving a blood spatter on some of the windows.

"What the hell just happened?" Charlie asks frantically.

The sound goes off several more times, shaking the plane with every one until it finally falls to the ground, now perfectly horizontal.

"Jack, come on!" Kate screams as Jack begins reaching for the transceiver.

"We have to go!" I yell to him.

"Just leave it!" Charlie tells him.

Jack finally grabs it and we all sprint out of the plane with Kate in the front, then Jack, then me, and Charlie in the back.

I can hear Charlie fall behind me. I turn around to help him and begin pulling him up. I can't get him up because his foot is stuck in some kind of vine.

"Jack!" I yell, getting his attention. He turns around and begins sprinting towards us. When we finally get him free, Kate is nowhere in sight.

We all begin running again. Jack takes a sudden left turn and I begin to slide in the mud until my foot hits the root of a tree and I fall over. Charlie helps me back onto my feet and begins running towards where Jack went. I can hear that thing right behind us, so I grab his arms pull him backwards towards a large rock with an overhang just big enough for us to fit if we are lying down. It ends up being somewhat of a tackle as we are both quickly on the ground, under the rock. That thing moves just past us, but I can't get a good look at it.

We both get up when we hear Kate scream for Jack. We both start moving towards her. We end up coming from behind her, and she turns around just as Charlie comes up to her.

She turns around just as he says, "Kate!"

She screams and falls on him, taking them both to the ground.

"Where the hell is Jack?" She asks him with fear in her voice.

"I don't know!"

"Did you see him?"

"Yeah, he pulled me up!" Really Charlie, you're embarrassing me. Don't give me all the credit.

"Where is he?"

"I don't know!"

"How can you not know?"

"We got separated! Look, I fell down, he and Jeremy came back for me, that thing was-"

"Did you see it?" She asks, much calmer now.

"No, no, but it was right there, we were dead-I was-an', an' they came back-an' they pulled me up! I don't know where he is!"

The rain suddenly stops, which puts all of our attention on it.

"We have to go back for him," she says after a long silence.

"Go back? There? Kate, there's a certain gargantuan quality about this thing."

"Charlie's right," I say. "We don't even know if there's a Jack to go back for."

"Then don't come," she says bitterly as she walks off.

Charlie and I look at each other for a moment, silently making a decision. I give him my hand and help him up.

"Kate!" he says.

* * *

We must have been walking around for at least five minutes when Charlie decides to speak up.

"I heard you shout. I heard you shout 'Jack'. I'm Charlie by the way, this is Jeremy."

Just then we see a silver object stuck in the mud next to a pool of water.

"What is that?" Charlie asks.

It's the wings pin that pilots wear.

Kate picks it up, the suddenly looks to the trees above. Charlie and I follow suit. There is a body in the tree.

"What is-?"

"It's the pilot" says someone behind us. We all quickly turn around to see Jack standing there.

"Did you see it?" Kate asks him.

"No... It was right behind me but... I dove into the bushes."

Charlie points up to the pilot.

"Guys, how does something like that happen?"

* * *

Okay, anyone who is reading this, thank you for reading. There is one more thing I didn't mention in the authors note. Imagine that Jeremy was always in the show, but he was never important, never did anything worth showing. This is kind of like what would have happened, if he went on the first trip to the cockpit. Which starts a chain of events of him being more involved, and so on and so forth. Please try to review, it really encourages me to write more often, so if you are liking this then let me know so I have a reason to write more often! Plus it really helps me with knowing what I'm doing right and wrong.


	4. What We Heard

I just want to say, that for anyone reading this, I'm very sorry it has taken me so long to get these chapters out. I have a hard time writing the early episodes. Since I have seen them so many times it gets kind of boring to write them out. But now that I'm passed the pilot episodes, I should have chapters out a lot sooner. P.S. This is my longest chapter yet since there was such a wait for it.

* * *

_Chapter 4:_  
_What We Heard_  
_Day 2_

* * *

"Anything?" Charlie asks Jack, who is trying to get the transceiver to work.

"You keep asking if there's anything." Jack responds.

"Pardon me for appearing desperate, but before the pilot was ripped from the cockpit, he did say that no one was going to find us unless we get that transceiver working. So, is there anything?"

"No." Jack tells him bluntly.

"Okay."

Jack begins to pull ahead of Kate, Charlie, and I. He probably doesn't want to get grilled anymore.

"What were you doing in the bathroom?" Kate asks, presumably directed at Charlie.

Charlie hesitates. "I thought you could tell. I was getting sick. Puking. My one tangible contribution to the trek."

"No, I'm glad you came, Charlie." Kate tells him.

"Every trek needs a coward."

"You're not a coward." She says smiling.

"Yeah man, you saved my ass back there." I tell him, patting him on the shoulder.

* * *

I don't know how long we've been walking, but I can see our plane through the trees, so at least I know we're almost back.

As we step out of the trees I notice a large crowd. Two people are fighting, but I can't tell who. The crowd starts moving around, which gives me a nice view of them. Sawyer is sitting atop Sayid, and beating the crap out of him. I tap Jack on the shoulder and point to them, bringing his attention to the crowd for the first time. Jack begins to run over, and I go with him.

"Hey! Break it up!" Jack says as he begins to pull Sawyer off of Sayid, and Michael starts pulling Sayid back.  
Sayid has a death grip on Sawyer's legs, so I grab his arms and try to get him to release Sawyer.

"Break it up!" Jack yells once again. "Get off! That's it! It's over! That's it!

Jack and Michael are holding back Sawyer and Sayid, but I can tell it's not easy. When Michael starts to lose his grip on Sayid, I go over to help him.

"Son of a bitch!" Sawyer shouts.

"I'm sick of this redneck!" Sayid shouts back.

"You want some more of me boy!"

"Tell him! Tell everyone what you told me! Go on! Tell them that I crashed the plane!

"The shoe fits, buddy!"

"What is going on?" Jack asks. I think it's pretty obvious. Sawyer stereotyped him as a terrorist, and then they got into a fight. What's not clear about that?

"Ibn Al-Kalb"

Michael and I pull Sayid back and let him go, while Jack does the same with Sawyer.

"What's going on?" Jack yells.

"Look, my kid found these in the jungle." Michael says, handing a pair of handcuffs to Jack. Hmph. Maybe it's not that simple.

"And this guy was sitting in the back row of business class, the whole flight, never got up. Hands folded underneath the blanket. And for some reason - just pointin' this out - the guy sittin' next to him didn't make it." Sawyer tells everyone.

"Thank you so much for observing my behavior." Sayid retorts.

"You don't think I saw them pull you out of line before we boarded?"

They both make a move to start fighting each other again, but Michael and I resume our positions holding back Sayid, while Jack does the same with Sawyer.

"Come on, bring it!" Sawyer shouts at the top of his lungs.

"Stop!" Kate also yells rather loudly.

Sayid put his hands up as a sign that he is done, and steps back. Sawyer also appears to calm down.

"We found the transceiver, but it's not working. Can anybody help?" Kate tells everyone.

"Yes. I might be able to." Sayid replies.

"Oh great. Perfect! Let's trust this guy!" Sawyer just won't give up, will he?

"Hey! We're all in this together, man. Let's treat each other with a little respect." said Hurley, who I just realized was even here.

"Shut up, Lardo!" Hurley looks surprised at first, followed by a mix of anger and sadness.

"Hey! Give it a break." Jack replies.

"Whatever you say, doc. You're the hero." Sawyer walks away, obviously still angry.

Boone walks over to us looking like he is kind of nervous about saying anything, no doubt because of the awkward silence only filled by us trying to catch our breath

"You guys found the cockpit," Jack nods, "Any survivors?"

"No."

Sayid decides to change the topic of conversation. "It's dual band, military spec. Chances are, the battery is good, but - the radio is dead."

"Can you fix it?" Kate asks.

"I need some time."

The African-American woman, Rosy I think, was standing behind Sayid, so when he walked away she took the opportunity to ask a question. "Doctor, the... man with the shrapnel, I... I think you should take a look at him."

Jack walks away with her.

* * *

"Hey Claire"

"Hey. Did you guys find that radio thing?"

"Yeah. We did."

"So? Are we saved? Are you a hero now?" She says with a smile on her face.

"No. Not yet. It's kinda busted, Sayid is trying to fix it now."

"Yeah, I didn't think it worked. Nobody has jumped for joy yet." Her comment makes me laugh. A nice, true laugh. First one I've had since I got here.

"Don't worry, Sayid will fix it."

"I sure hope so."

For some reason, this woman across the beach has caught my attention. She's leaning against the destroyed turbine Sawyer likes to sit in, with a determined look on her face, as if she was searching for someone. That really doesn't surprise me though. A lot of people have lost friends or family in the crash. It's not out of the ordinary to see someone searching. She's fairly far away, but from what I can see, she's probably in her mid 40's, has mostly straight, brown hair, and she's about average height. She's still scanning the beach, looking at everybody, and she slowly starts looking toward Claire and I. She suddenly get's the biggest smile on her face. I've never seen her before, so she must be looking at Claire. Actually, no, she's looking at me. I give a slight smile, and lightly raise my hand up as a kind of hello gesture. She retains her smile, and returns my gesture, except she raises her hand a little higher than I did. She puts her hand down, and looks a her feet, but her smile never fades. She then turns and walks away, out of sight.

"Hey, Claire, I'll talk to you later, I need to find someone." I tell her as I stand up.

"Umm... okay, I'll talk to you later then." She replies, obviously confused.

It takes me a moment to find the woman, but I eventually find her sitting against a tree, right at the edge of the tree line. She's holding a picture, but I can't see what it's a picture of.

"What ya got there?" I ask her.

She looks up hastily, as if she she didn't know I was there. Considering how involved she was with that picture, she probably didn't. "Oh, uh, it's uh...," She hands me the picture, "it's a picture of me and my daughter."

"She's pretty," she smiles at my comment, "Was she on the plane with you?"

"No, thank god. I just have this to, I don't know, comfort me... I guess. We may be here a while."

"Don't say that, I'm sure you'll be back with your family soon enough."

"Shannon!" I hear Boone yell. I turn to look, and I can see Shannon walking away from Boone towards Kate and Sayid.

"Oh no." I say.

"What?" the woman asks.

"Boone and Shannon are at it again, and now they're probably gonna harass Kate and Sayid until they pick a side. I've gotta go break it up," I notice she's wearing a wedding ring, "so I'll talk to you later Mrs..."

She realizes that we haven't told each other our names yet. "Oh, uh, Green, but please, call me Samantha."

"Hello, Samantha," I say, shaking her hand, "My name is Jeremy." She smiles.

"Well I'll see you later Jeremy."

"See you later." I say as I begin walking towards Sayid, Boone, Kate, and Shannon.

By the time I make it to them, Boone and Shannon have really getting in to it.

Shannon is looking at her brother with this really pissed off look on her face. "Shut up, and stop trying to be charming," She turns towards Kate and Sayid, "I'm coming with you."

"I don't... know if that's such a good idea." Kate says skeptically.

"What are you? Two years older than me? Please." Shannon replies snarkily. At that moment Charlie walks up, and he probably isn't prepared for Shannon's wrath. "You're going, aren't you?"

"Yeah, are you?" Charlie replies.

"Yup."

"Yeah, I'm definitely going." Of course Charlie would say that.

"Look, everybody can come. But we're leaving now." Kate interrupts angrily.

"You couldn't tell from that, but she's actually really nice." Charlie tells Shannon.

We all begin walking, and I suddenly realize I have something in my hand. I look down at it, and I notice for the first time I'm still holding Samantha's picture. "Oh damn it." I say aloud.

Charlie looks at me with curiosity. "What's that?"

"A woman showed me a picture and I guess I just never gave it back to her. Hey guys, I'll be right back, I have to go return this."

"We can't wait, if we don't hurry, we won't get back before nightfall." Sayid tells me.

"Okay, I guess I can just give it to her when we get back." I stick the picture in my back pocket to keep it safe. I would hate to lose something as valuable to me as this picture is to her.

I hear footsteps behind me, and it turns out to be Sawyer.

"You decided to join us." Kate says to him.

"I'm a complex guy, sweetheart."

* * *

Two. Hours. We have been walking for two hours. My legs are killing me and it's hot as hell out here. Yeah, I know right. It's hot on a tropical island, who'd have thunk it.

"Okay! Wide open space! You should check the radio, see if we're good." Why does Sawyer always have to talk? Can't he just be quiet for once?

"We're not going to have any reception here." Sayid tells him.

"Just try it."

"I don't want to waste the batteries."

"I'm not asking you to keep it on all day."

"We're still blocked by the mountain."

"Just check the damn radio!"

"If I just check... we might not have any juice left when we get to..." Sayid is cut off by the sounds of growling and movement.

"My god." Shannon says.

"What the hell's that?" Boone asks, obviously frightened.

"Something's coming." replies Kate.

"We should probably run away." I tell them.

"It's coming towards us, I think." Charlies says.

"Come on, let's move." Kate tells us.

We all begin running away. All of us except for Sawyer, who is just kind of standing there.

"Come on, Sawyer, let's go!" I yell to him as I continue to run. As we pick up our pace I hear what sounds like Sawyer running behind me.

"I shouldn't have come. Aah!" Shannon exclaims.

"Go! Go!" Sayid shouts.

"Sawyer!" Kate yells.

I look back to see Sawyer still standing there.

"Let him go!" Sayid tells Kate, pulling her to keep up with us.

I look back again and this time Sawyer is holding a handgun towards where the movement came from. He begins firing, pacing his shots, but as he hears it get closer, he begins firing faster and faster. I count nine shots (probably 9mm from the sound of it) in total until a large white animal falls out of the bushes, only feet away from sawyer. We get close enough to see that it's a bear. It looks to be a very light brown or a very dirty white. The only white bear I know of is the polar bear, but we're on a tropical island, so I'll go ahead and rule that one out.

"That's... that's a big bear." Shannon states.

"You think that's what killed the pilot?"

Charlie, Kate, and I share a look.

"No. No, that's a tiny, teeny version compared to that." Charlie replies.

"Guys, this isn't just a... bear. That's a polar bear." Kate informs us.

I look it over once more, and, well I'll be damned, she's right.

"That can't be a polar bear." Boone says.

"It's a polar bear." Kate and Sayid say at the same time.

"Yeah, but... Polar bears don't usually live in the jungle." Shannon replies. I open my mouth to say something, but Charlie's already beat me to the punchline.

"Spot on."

"No, polar bears don't live near this far south." Sayid adds to Shannon's earlier statement.

"This one does." Boone says.

"Did. It did." Sawyer states.

Kate looks to sawyer. "Where did that come from?" she asks him.

"Probably Bear Village. How the hell do I know?" He replies sarcastically. I let out a small laugh. That one was actually pretty funny.

"Not the bear. The gun."

"I got if off one of the bodies."

"One of the bodies." Sayid asks skeptically.

"Yeah, one of the bodies."

"People don't carry guns on planes." Shannon has an act for... stating the obvious, doesn't she?

"They do if they're a US Marshal, sweet cheeks. There was one on the plane." Sawyer tells her.

"How do you know that?" Kate asks hurriedly.

"I saw a guy lying there with an ankle holster, so I took the gun. I thought it might come in handy. Guess what? I just shot a bear!"

"So why do you think he's a Marshal?"

"Because he had a clip-on badge," Sawyer holds up the badge, "took that too. Thought it was cool."

"I know who you are. You're the prisoner." Sayid says. Oh dammit. Why is Kate giving me a funny look? Did I just say that out loud?

"I'm the what?"

"You found a gun on a US Marshal. Yes, I believe you did. You knew where it was, because you were the one he was bringing back to the States. Those handcuffs were on you. That's how you knew there was a gun."

"Piss off."

"That's who you are, you son of a bitch."

"Be as suspicious of me as I am of you."

"But you are the prisoner."

"Fine! I'm the criminal. You're the terrorist. We can all play a part." Sawyer turns to Shannon. "Who do you want to be?"

While Sawyer has his back to her, Kate grabs the gun and points it at him.

"Whoa, Kate, put it down!" I say.

"Does anybody know how to use a gun?" Why does that sound so familiar?

"I think you just pull the trigger." Damn it, Charlie, you aren't helping.

"Don't use the gun." Sayid says almost nonchalantly.

"I want to take it apart." She replies.

"Oh." Charlie says with either relief or disappointment, I can't tell which.

"There's a button on the grip. Push that, it will eject the magazine." Sayid explains. She follows his instruction and stops pointing it at Sawyer, but aims it right at me and Charlie in the process. "Whoa, there's still a round in the chamber." I tell her. She instantly points the gun back at Sawyer, which I would find humorous if there wasn't a danger of her killing one of us. "P-pull the uh, pull the slide back," Oh god, I'm getting nervous, "the uh, the top part of the gun, pull it back." She does as I said, and I pick up the bullet that fell to the ground. "Give me the uh, the, the clip." I say to Kate. She looks a little skeptical, but she hands it to me anyways. She then hands the unloaded gun to Sawyer. I put the bullet back into the clip, which is otherwise empty. I hand the clip to Sayid.

Kate begins to walk past Sawyer, but Sawyer grabs her arm, and begins whispering something to her. I can't hear what they say, but I can't imagine it's anything nice. Sawyer lets go and Kate starts to walk away again.

* * *

We've probably been walking for an hour in complete silence.

Sayid pulls out the transceiver to check for a signal.

"Oh! Now's a good time to check the radio! Not before.. but now!" Sawyer. If I thought I stood a chance I would kick his ass.

"We're up higher." Sayid replies.

"Yes, we are!"

"Bar. Hey! We've got a bar! Mayday! Mayday!" Sayid shouts with excitement. Maybe this is it. Maybe this is when we get rescued.

The only sound that comes from the transceiver is feedback.

"What is that?" Kate asks.

"Feedback." Sayid and I say at the same time.

"Feedback from what? What would do that?"

"I don't know." Sayid replies.

"It could be anything." I add.

"I'll tell you what would do that. This guy not fixing the radio. This thing doesn't even work." Sawyer's really starting to piss me off.

"No. No, no, no, no, it's not broken. We can't transmit because something else is already transmitting." Sayid replies.

"Transmitting from where?" Charlie asks.

"Somewhere close. The signal's strong."

"Somewhere close? You mean on the Island? That's great!"

"Maybe it's other survivors." Boone adds.

"From our plane? How would they even—" Shannon gets interrupted by Sawyer.

"What kind of transmission is it?"

"Could be a sat phone, maybe a radio signal..." Sayid replies.

"Can we listen to it?" Kate asks.

"Let me get the frequency first. Hold on."

"There's no transmission." sawyer states.

"Shut up." "would you just shut up?" Kate and I say at the same time.

"The rescue party. It has to be." Charlies says hopefully.

Sayid gets the right frequency, and the transmission becomes clear as day. But it's in French.

"It's French! The French are coming! I've never been so happy to hear the French!" Charlies exclaims gleefully.

"I never took French. What does she say?" Kate looks around. She finally sets her sights on me.

I shake my head. "Spanish."

"D-Does anybody speak French?" Sayid asks.

"She does." Boone replies pointing to his sister.

"No, I don't. What?"

"What the hell are you talking about? You spent a year in Paris!"

"Drinking, not studying!"

A male voice comes over the transceiver. It doesn't sound like an actual person, more like a machine.

"Iteration 7-2-9-4-5-3-1."

"Okay. What's that?" Charlie asks.

"Iteration, that's, uh-" I get interrupted by Sayid.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no."

"'No, no, no' what?" Kate asks.

"The-the batteries are dying!"

"How much time do we have?"

"Not much."

"I've heard you speak French! Just listen to this! Listen to it!" Boone says to Shannon.

"I can't!"

"You speak French or not? Because that would be nice." Sawyer says.

"Iteration 1-7-2-9-4-5-3-2.

"That voice is weird. What is that?" asks Charlie.

"Come on. Come on, Shannon!" Boone says urging on his sister.

The message begins again and Shannon listens closely.

"It's... it's repeating." She says.

"She's right." Sayid adds.

"What?" Boone asks.

"It's a loop. "Iteration"—it's repeating the same message. It's a counter. The next number will end... "533"."

"Iteration 1-7-2-9-4-5-3-3."

"Does anyone know what the hell he's talking about?" Sawyer asks in an angry tone.

"It's a running count of the number of times the message has repeated. It's roughly thirty seconds long, so... how long..." Sayid starts doing the math in his head.

"Don't forget to carry the one, chief."

"Iteration 1-7-2-9-4-5-3-4."

Shannon begins translating the message, "She's saying .. 'Please'. She's saying, 'Please help me. Please, come get me.'"

"Or she's not! You don't even speak French!" Sawyer says to Shannon.

"Shut the hell up!" I say.

"Let her listen!" "Shut up, man!" Kate and Boone say at almost the same time I do.

"Guys, the battery. The battery." Charlie whispers to us, reminding us that we don't have time to waste.

"Iteration 1-7-2-9-4-5-3-5."

Shannon continues her translation. "'I'm alone now. Uhm... On the Island alone. Please, someone come. The others, they're... they're dead. I-it killed them. I-it killed them all.'"

The message ends. We all sit there silently, at a loss for words.

"That was good." Boone says quietly.

"Sixteen years." says Sayid.

"What?" Sawyer asks.

"Sixteen years. And five months. That's the count."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Boone replies.

"The iterations. It's a distress call. A plea for help. A mayday. If the count is right... It's been playing over... and over... for sixteen years."

"Someone else? Was stranded here?"

"Maybe they came for them." Kate adds.

"If someone came, why is it still playing?" Sawyer asks. Which is probably the most helpful thing he's done all day. Except for, you know, the whole polar bear thing.

"Guys. Where are we?"


	5. Nightfall

_Chapter 5:  
Nightfall  
Day 2_

* * *

"It's getting dark," Boone says, breaking the silence.

"Then pick up the pace," Sawyer once again replies sarcastically.

"Hick."

"Little louder?"

"We should make camp," Sayid interrupts, trying to avoid a fight.

"What, here?" Shannon asks.

"Yes, here."

"I'm not stopping. Y'all have a nice cookout."

"Excellent, walk through the jungle in the dark."

"Oooo, afraid the trees are going to get us?"

"No, what is knocking down the trees will get you."

Sawyer pulls out the gun. "Well, if you're so worried about me, how about you give me the clip back?"

"Put the gun back in your pants, Sawyer. Sayid's right, if you keep walking, you're not going to make it to the beach," Kate tells him.

"Yeah, why's that?"

Charlie, Kate, and I share a look, then Charlie looks away.

"Trust me."

* * *

Sayid places a rock on the ground. "This is Australia." He holds up a torch. "This is us."

"Nice stick."

Sayid ignores Sawyer's comment. "Two days ago we take off from Sydney. We fly along the same northeast route every commercial airliner bound for Los Angeles does. Now, the pilot, he said he lost communication with the ground, correct?"

"Yeah, 6 hours in. He turned around and headed for Fiji." Kate tells him.

"So, we changed course. Regrettably, no one knew we changed course. The turbulence hit. We know the rest." Sayid puts out the torch.

"The pilot said we were over a thousand miles off course," I add.

"Yeah, but, they'll find us. They have satellites in space that can take pictures of your license plate." Charlie says, almost trying to convince himself.

"If only we were all wearing license plates," Sayid replies.

"Well, aren't you the pessimist."

"Basic photography - point and shoot. Satellites can shoot, but they must be told where to point."

"Oh. Bollocks."

"Okay, really enjoyed the puppet show. Fantastic. But we're stuck in the middle of damn nowhere. How about we talk about that other thing? You know that transmission Abdul picked up on his little radio? The French chick that said, 'They're all dead.' The transmission's been on a loop for… how long was it, Freckles?" Sawyer says, indicating Kate.

"16 years."

"Right. Let's talk about that."

"Well, we have to tell the others when we get back," Boone says.

"Tell them what, exactly?" Shannon asks.

"What we heard."

"You didn't hear anything. I'm not a stupid translator."

"No one's going to tell them anything," Sayid interrupts. "To relay what we heard without fully understanding it will cause a panic. If we tell them what we know we take away their hope. And hope is a very dangerous thing to lose."

"So we lie."

* * *

We've spent the last... I don't know... 20 minutes? Yeah, 20 minutes in complete silence. The silence gives me time to think, and normally I like that, but, I don't have anything good to think about. All I can think about is how much I miss my parents. Or how long it will be until we get rescued. Or if we get rescued. Or like what will happen when someone finds more bullets for that gun. Or what if they find another gun? It's probably not likely, but, my uncle's a cop, and he always brings a gun on the plane. It's never loaded and he never has it on him but it's in his bags. If there was another cop on board it's possible, and Sawyer doesn't seem afraid to use a gun. What if he gets more ammo, and suddenly decides he doesn't like someone, so he just shoots them? I really shouldn't let myself think this hard about it. Because then I worry, and if I worry then it might show, and if it shows, then people might try to tell me everything will be better, or try to comfort me or something. And I _do not_ want people to try and take care of me. I just wan-

Boone just said something. What did he say? Why does Boone always talk during my inner monologue? I never hear what he says, and I tend to say stupid things.

"What?" I ask.

"When we crashed, I asked you for a pen, and you said I had beautiful eyes."

"Oh, so the doctor wasn't enough, you had to flirt with a young boy too?" asks Shannon.

Boone and I both ignore her.

"Yeah, I had gotten hit pretty hard on the head, and I didn't hear what you said, so my social skills were running off of stream of consciousness."

He lets out a light chuckle. "So were you alone on the plane?"

"I, uh, yeah, I was."

"I guess that's good. I just haven't seen you with anyone you knew before the crash. I assumed the worst."

"No, I was definitely alone, which is a good thing. The other people in my row didn't make it."

Boone is silent for a moment. "So why were you in Australia?"

"I, was uh, visiting a friend. He moved to Australia when we were little, and we were both out of school for a couple of weeks. It was a pretty good time to go."

"Oh. Man, that sucks."

"Yeah, I know. Well it's getting late, and we should probably get an early start in the morning, so I'm going to sleep."

* * *

"What are you doing?"

I open my eyes just as everybody sits, up. Sayid and Boone are standing next to each other, and Boone has the gun.

"Standing guard. You heard what they said is out there," Boone says.

"You took my gun off me, boy?" Sawyer asks angrily.

Shannon looks to Boone. "Please, you've never even held a gun." She turns to the rest of us, who are now standing up. "He doesn't believe in guns. He goes on marches."

"I don't go on marches."

"Give it back to me," Sayid demands.

"Yeah, give it to Al Jazeera, he'll protect us." Sawyer says sarcastically. Big surprise.

"Al Jazeera is a network," Charlie informs him.

"I'll keep the damn gun," Boone states.

"We should give it to her," Shannon says indicating Kate.

"Yeah, Kate should hold the gun," Charlie adds.

"Fine with me. Well?" Sayid also adds.

Boone gives the gun to Kate.


	6. In That Case

_Chapter 6:  
__In That Case...  
__Day 3_

* * *

Finally. We're back. I'm exhausted from walking this much, burning to death from the heat, and to top it all off, I haven't eaten since our first night here. So I'm not doing so well. I'm going to find myself some food, but first things first, I need to return something. I don't see Samantha in the crowd of people gathering around Sayid, and I don't really know where to find her. I could check the destroyed turbine, or the tree line, but that will take a lot of effort. Well not really, but I'm running on fumes here. I'll just find her after I ea- oh, there she is. She's walking toward me with her normal smile. At least I think it's normal. I've only ever talked to her once before.

"Hey," she says.

"Just the person I was looking for. I think I forgot to give you back your picture." I say as I pull the photo out of my back pocket and hand it to her.

"Oh, thank you! I was looking for it all day, I thought I lost it."

"Nope, I just took it on a little trip."

"Speaking of trips, how did the hike go?"

Oh no. I'm already being asked about it? I thought I would have more time to make myself sound confident in my lie. Guess not, here goes nothin'.

"It was pretty, er," Do I tell her about Sawyer and the polar bear? Our goal is to not cause panic, so I guess I should avoid that topic of conversation, "uneventful."

"Well did the radio work?"

"No, we didn't pick up anything."

"Oh. Hey, are you alright?"

"What? Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"You just... don't look so good."

"Well I'm worn out and I haven't eaten in a while. I just need to get some food in me and I'll be fine. So I'm gonna go find something to eat."

"Okay. Try not to starve to death."

* * *

I walk across the beach to where Charlie and Claire are. Charlie is pushing some bags in a wheelchair, and it looks like they're talking.

"So, you guys hiked all the way up that mountain for nothing, huh?" Claire asks when I finally get to them. Charlie and I can't help take a quick glance at each other. I don't like lying to Claire even though I've only known her for three days. It appears Charlie feels the same way.

Charlie just shrugs.

"Pretty much. Hey you guys don't happen to have any food on you, do you?"

"Nope."

"Ugh."

"What?" Charlie asks.

"I haven't eaten since our first night and I'm starving. Since you guys don't have any food either I'm gonna go get us some."

"What, are you gonna wrestle a wild animal with your bare hands?" Charlie asks sarcastically.

"We're on a tropical island; I'm bound to run into a coconut sooner or later. I'll be back with some food."

"Okay, thanks. Good luck mate."

* * *

I'm not too far from the beach, but I'm far enough in that I should be finding something. But there is nothing here. The only things I have found so far are half-eaten mangoes. Oh? What's this? A perfectly good - half eaten mango. I pick it up and throw it at the tree branches out of frustration. A midst the sound of the branches rustling, I also hear the sound of something small and plastic hit the ground, followed by a loud splash from the mango hitting some water.

I walk over to the small object to find that it is a pair of glasses. From here I can also see a waterfall flowing into a large pond. That must have been where the splash came from. I look up at the tree in hopes that I can find where these glasses came from. Sure enough, there's a messenger bag stuck in the tree. I should probably get that. If I ever find food, it's gonna be a pain carrying it all back. This will make my life so much easier. I begin to climb the tree and find that it is a pretty easy tree to climb, as there are all kinds of footholds on it. I finally reach the top, where the messenger bag is. The only problem is that it's slightly out of reach. Come on, if I just stretch... a little... more... "Gotcha! SH-" I lose my grip on the tree and begin my rapid descent to the jungle floor.

I hit with a considerable thud, which brings to the surface an almost forgotten injury. My ribs.

"AH! Ow! Ow! Ow! God that hurts! Oh, son of a bitch!"

I focus on everything but the pain. I take deep breaths and just stare into the sky. Okay. The pain's going away. I'm okay. I notice I'm still clutching the messenger bag. At least I've still got this thing. I sit up to give the pain time to completely go away. I begin searching the bag, and find only a couple of shirts and some books, the top one being _Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie_. If the rest of these books are as good as the first, then I should be entertained for quite some time.

I finally stand up and begin moving toward the pond. I can see a row of seats right next to the edge of the water, and they aren't level. They're propped up on something. As I get closer I can begin to see what the object is. It's a metal case. It's wide open, and the metal bar on the bottom of the left seat is placed as if it had split the case open. Like a knife and a melon. It isn't until I get within arm's length of the seats that I notice bodies in them. I take a step back and think about just walking back to the beach, but my curiosity gets the better of me. I pull my shirt up over my nose like a make-shift gas mask. I lift up on the seats and pull it slightly back, freeing the case. Upon reaching the case and looking inside, I see something I really wasn't expecting. Guns. With several boxes of ammo. They are all 9mm, and there are five of them. Having one was bad enough, but five? That's asking for trouble.

I pull out a gun that I'm pretty familiar with. A Sig Sauer P226. Exactly like the one Sawyer got off the marshal. This used to be my favorite handgun to shoot whenever my dad and I would go shooting. But that's beside the point. Right now I have to decide what to do with this case. I'm the only one who knows about it, or it would probably be empty. I have to decide what to do with it. I always wanted to be treated like an adult, with adult responsibilities, but, this might be a little much. I could show someone else, but I don't know anyone else I can trust. Especially not with guns. The only person I know I can trust is myself. Giving this to anybody else would just be too dangerous, but I don't have anywhere to hide it. Plus Kate still has that gun. If it were to fall into the wrong hands, it could be bad. That's why somebody should have a gun, just in case there is ever a situation like that. But I don't trust anyone else. Except me.

I take the Sig and a box off ammo and shove it into the bottom of my bag. Now just to decide what to do with the rest of the guns. I'll throw the case into the pond. That way nobody will just happen upon it, but if I ever need to get it I'll know right where to find it. I start to close it, but something catches my eye. An envelope with "Personal Effects" written on it. I open the case back up, and with a little bit of investigation, realize that this case belonged to the marshal. I let out a deep sigh and close the case. I hold it over the water, and drop it. I expected it to sink, but... "Okay, I didn't think this through. It has air in it. It's floating. Of course it is." I look over to the row of seats with the two bodies in them. "I'm really sorry about this."

I push the seats up to the edge of the water, and move the case so it's directly under where the seats will be. I steady the case to make sure it won't float away, then move behind the seats. I put myself into a position to push the seats. "Again, I'm really sorry about this." I push with all of my might, which isn't much at the moment. The seats start moving, and soon enough they fall right on top of the case, both of them sinking to the bottom. I really wish I could say I won't have to worry about it much longer, because rescue would be here soon, but I can't.

* * *

"Here I found you a mango." I say to Charlie.

"Aww, I wanted a coconut." He replies jokingly.

"Well, you get a mango. Hey will you give this one to Claire next time you see her?" I hand him another mango out of my bag.

"Sure. Hey where'd you get the bag?"

"Found it."

"Is that code for 'I stole it'?"

"No, I found it in a tree."

"You found it in a tree?"

"Yes, I found it in a tree."

"So it was just sitting there?"

"Yes, Charlie, it was just sitting there."

"It was jus-"

"Yes Charlie! It was! Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go find a nice place to take a nap. I've had a rough couple of days, and not nearly enough sleep."

"Okay, okay. Always gotta ruin the fun." It was a joke, so I just smile and walk away.

I can't help but think about what will happen when someone finds out I have a gun I'm not telling anybody about. I'm not so naive as to think that nobody will find out. Because whether I'm ready for it or not, _they will find out_.

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, I finally found out where I got the title from. It's the name of the last chapter of a story by **_turniphead815 _**entitled _Playing With_ _Fate_. If you're a Charlie/Claire fan I recommend you check it out.

Also, I'd like to thank Sol for the wonderful (and first) review. It means a lot to me and definitely makes this worth taking the time to write.


	7. So Boar'd It Hurts

Chapter 7:  
_So Boar'd It Hurts_  
Day 4

* * *

I open my eyes.

Walt's dog is barking as loud as he possibly can. We're stuck on an island for who knows how long, and all I want is a little sleep.

I let out a sigh and roll onto my side as I try to go back to sleep. The second I close my eyes, I hear the sound of movement inside the fuselage. I sit up to get a better look. By now everybody is waking up, including Claire and Hurley, who are just to the left of me.

There is a lot of movement in the fuselage. I stand up with my hand on my bag, just in case.

We all group up near the entrance to the fuselage.

"What is it?" asks Kate.

"Somebody's in there," Claire replies.

"Everyone in there's dead," Sayid adds.

"Sawyer," Jack says with contempt in his voice.

"Right behind you, Jackass," Sawyer tells Jack. I've got to admit it: Sawyer is pretty funny at times.

Jack pulls out a small flashlight and heads toward the wreckage. Sawyer follows him with a bigger flashlight.

"Jack?" Kate asks cautiously.

I can barely see something moving in there.

"I'm gonna shed some light on this thing," Sawyer says.

He shines his light on a large animal. It looks over its shoulder and start running toward us.

"Run," Jack says with a raised voice.

Everyone starts running past me. I put my hand in the bag and start grabbing for my gun. By the time I get a grip on it, one of the animals is really close to me, and heading right at me. Before I can aim the gun at it, it runs into my left leg. I fall over it and land face down. The gun isn't in my hand anymore. It's lying just in front of me. I don't get a good grip on it and just end up swatting at the sand a couple of times before I grab it. I roll over on to my back and aim between my legs. Charlie gets knocked onto the ground by someone, and one of those... wild pigs? Boars? Is heading toward the tree line, but Charlie is in its path. I aim... and...

_Click. Click. Click._

_What in the world_... I release the magazine. It's empty. I didn't load the gun. I didn't even check to make sure it was loaded in the first place! I put the magazine back in and quickly shove the gun back into my bag. I don't think anyone saw me. If they did, well, I'll be hearing about it soon.

I stand up to see that the rest of them are gone. Everyone is picking themselves up or coming out of hiding. I begin walking toward Charlie.

"They're gone," Sayid states.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Charlie asks slightly panicked.

"Boars," Locke says with a smile on his face. So it was a boar...

Charlie grabs his side in pain. "Hey, you alright?" I ask.

"It clipped me," He replies.

"Yeah, you're gonna want to go see Jack."

He nods and begins to walk, but grips his side in pain after the first step.

"Okay, okay, put your arm around me, let's go," I say as I walk up beside him.

"So how's your day been? Boaring?" I ask.

He chuckles. "I'm so boar'd it hurts."

I bring Charlie in to Jack's tent.

"He got hit in the side," I tell Jack as Charlie sits down.

Jack immediately starts fixing him up as Sayid and Kate walk in.

We sit silently for a few, but Jack knows that they're looking to him for answers.

"Those boars were looking to feed. We have to get rid of the bodies," Jack finally says. _What?_

"Bury them? There's a whole bunch in there," Charlie asks.

"More than twenty. Digging will be difficult without shovels," Sayid adds.

"We're not burying them. We need to burn them," Jack replies.

"What?" I say audibly this time.

"They're people," Kate states.

"You're damn right they're people! We can't burn them!" I add.

"I know they're people."

"Burning the remains? They deserve better than that," Sayid tells Jack.

"Better than what? Being eaten by wild animals? Because that's what's going to happen. Any bodies we bury are not going to stay buried for very long. Look, I know this seems harsh, but that fuselage in the sun—it's not about what they deserve. They're gone, and we're not."

"What you say may be true, but for us to decide how these people are laid to rest—it's not right. No regard for their wishes? Their religions?"

"We don't have time to sort out everybody's god."

"Really? Last I heard we were positively made of time," Charlie adds.

"You can't do this Jack!" I also add.

"Look, I'm not happy about it either, but we crashed a thousand miles off course. They're looking for us in the wrong place. It's been 4 days, no one's come. Tomorrow morning we need everyone to start gathering up wood, dried brush, and turn that fuselage into a furnace. Wait until the sun goes down tomorrow night before we start the fire."

Jack walks out of the tent.

"If he's so eager to burn the bodies why are we waiting until sundown?" Charlie asks.

"He's hoping someone will see it," Kate tells him.

I rub my hand over the back of my head and release a deep breath.

"DAMMIT!" I yell as I slam my hand onto the armrest of an airplane seat. My knuckle furthest to the right is bleeding now.

Charlie, Kate, and Sayid are looking at me. I walk out.

* * *

"Judith Martha Wexler from Denton, TX; guess she was going to catch a connecting flight. Um, she wore corrective lenses and she was an organ donor, or at least would have been. Steve and Kirsten, I don't know their last name, but they were really in love and were going to be married. At least, wherever they are now, they're not alone."

I'm sitting far enough away from the "memorial" that I can still hear and see Claire, but I'm further back than everyone else. I have my knees pulled to my chest, and my arms are crossed over them. I can feel the tears running down my face, and I have no doubt that if someone looked at me they would know I was crying. Especially with the flames from the fuselage lighting up the whole beach.

"...video store receipt lists his overdue charges for Willy Wonka and A Little Princess. Looks like he hadn't traveled much... as far as I can tell from his passport... Evan Ward, seat 35C... I have three here. From seats 6A, B, and C are..."

Claire stumbles over her words and looks up. Straight at me, in fact. She looks surprised, and also a little sad. She can see that I'm crying. She quickly gets back to the memorial.

"Uh... Wollstein, Harold, seat 23C."

* * *

After the memorial, everybody has gone to where they sleep, and I'm still sitting here, watching the fire. Claire is walking over to me, and she sits down just to the right of me. I'm not crying anymore, but I can imagine my eyes are still pretty red.

"I'm sorry," she says.

"Thank you," I reply.

"For what?"

"For not saying anything."

"Well you haven't said anything to anyone. I figured it wasn't my place. Why haven't you said anything?"

"Because I want to be treated like everybody else while I'm here. I don't want anyone's pity. I'll get enough of that when we leave here."

"I can understand that."

"So you won't tell anyone?"

"No. Not if you don't want me to."

"Thank you."

"You already said that."

I give her a small smile as I stand up. "I know. Goodnight."

I walk over to a nice area. Away from the fuselage.

I lay down to get some sleep. I'm going to need it. Things are only going to get harder the longer we stay here.


End file.
